The prior art contains many examples of fabrics developed for use in disposable hospital gowns, surgical drapes, and wraps for medical components. These fabrics, which must be fluid repellant and themselves sterilizable, are used to maintain sterility by providing a barrier to contamination. In the case of fabrics used for making gowns the fabric needs also to be breathable and possess sufficient drape for comfort. U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,203 discloses a fabric developed for use as a wrap, gown or surgical drape. The fabric is a laminar structure having a top layer comprising a mat of discontinuous thermoplastic microfibers and the bottom layer comprising a web of thermoplastic continuous fibers, which layers are then bonded in discrete intermittent regions using, for example, heat to laminate the two layers together. UK Patent Application No. 2,074,093 discloses another laminar fabric suitable for use in hospital gowns or tents. The laminar structure comprises a flexible layer of hydrophobic material and a continuous hydrophilic layer. As described in the application, the layers may be fastened together by sewing or by an adhesive, or the hydrophilic layer may be cast directly onto the microporous hydrophobic layer, and sufficient hydraulic force applied to force the hydrophilic polymer to penetrate into the surface void spaces of the hydrophobic layer.
The prior art also contains many disclosures of entangled fiber fabrics; nonwoven fabrics formed by hydraulic entangling. U.S. Pat. No. 3,493,462 discloses a nonpatterned fabric of interentangled fibrous material selected from the group consisting of cellulosic and synthetic textile fibers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,819 discloses various methods of producing entangled fiber fabrics including nonpatterned fabrics, or fabrics with a core or fabrics with a backing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,663 discloses a composite fabric formed by entangling extremely fine individual fibers having a average diameter of 0.1 to 6.0 microns into a woven or knitted fabric, said fabric being disclosed as a substratum for artificial leather.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,449,809 discloses an improved process for producing nonwovens with the entangling method by using a polymeric additive in the water. This patent discloses that the improved process may also be used to stitch an assemblage together by entangling fibers from a top layer into and through lower layers. Defensive publication 17060 discloses a two-sided laminar fabric formed by uniting a web of synthetic fibers with paper sheet by mechanical entangling, fluid entanglement and/or bonding. Applicants' fabric is a two-sided fabric, but comprises alternating entangled discontinuous rows of polymeric fibers and wood pulp fibers. The publication contains no disclosures of entangled rows of polymeric fibers and wood pulp fibers. A duPont fabric sold under the name Fabric 450.TM. comprises an entangled fabric of polymeric and wood pulp fibers containing alternating rows of wood pulp and polymeric fibers with a thin veneer of wood pulp on one surface thereof.